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Here's the lead from the AP article:
McCain Advisers Lobbied for Airbus
By JIM KUHNHENN and MATTHEW DALY – Mar 11, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.
Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.
The article caught on to part of the significance of the ties between John McCain and Airbus:
"The aesthetics are not good, especially since he is an advocate of reform and transparency," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the aerospace consulting firm Teal Group. "Boeing advocates are going to use this as ammunition."
McCain, a longtime critic of influence peddling and special interest politics, has come under increased scrutiny as a presidential candidate, particularly because he has surrounded himself with advisers who are veteran Washington lobbyists. He has defended his inner circle and has emphatically denied reports last month in The New York Times and The Washington Post that suggested he helped the client of a lobbyist friend nine years ago.
Ties between "Keating Five" McCain and foreign lobbyists certainly do contradict McCain's facade as a reformer. Other articles have focused on the potential harm to McCain's campaign in communities where aerospace is a major employer.
McCain's ties to Airbus could cost him votes in Kansas
"Does tanker deal push Washington off McCain's map?"
Boeing certainly is a major employer in Washington and Kansas, and McCain's Airbus corruption could cost him votes. However, there is a broader pattern that is being missed by so many.
McCain's behavior is consistent of that of so many right-wing politicians to ship US jobs oversees.
Whether it is "Keating Five" McCain, the Clintons, the Bushes, or the rest of the corporate right, a huge priority has been to ship American jobs abroad with the two main goals.
1) Shifting jobs to lower wage markets.
2) Putting downward pressure on US wages.
These are the dots the corporate media don't want connected.
Great post!
In announcing that Northrop Grumman had won the bid, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Sue Payton stated unequivocally that there was constant, open communication between her group and the two competitors. Each side had a chance, through multiple steps, to protest or question anything that they felt was going awry in the process. Boeing accepted the playing field as it was and remained silent. In fact, company officials repeatedly praised the openness of the process. It was only after they lost that they found it to be unfair.
Now Boeing is protesting, thereby delaying even further a long overdue upgrade in the nation’s capacity to refuel its warplanes. In a fit of pique, Boeing has decided that petty political infighting takes precedence over the interests of our men and women in uniform.
anonymous: Why should I or anyone else care what Boeing thinks? Shipping American jobs abroad is wrong regardless of what any corporation says.
Besides, McCain's support for the war proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that McCain hates our troops and is happy they are dying in Iraq for a bunch of crooked corporations.
BTW, do you work for McCain and/or Airbus?